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Do courtship-violent men have characteristics associated with a “Battering Personality”?

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Abstract

Three studies explored the presence of characteristics associated with “battering personalities” in courtship-violent college men. These characteristics were derived from “Signs to Look for in a Battering Personality” developed in Fayetteville, AR, to describe wife-batterers. In the first study, two questions measured aggression. In the second and third study, Straus's (1979) Conflict Tactics Scale was also used. Attitudes toward Women (Spence et al., 1973) were measured in the first two studies. Sexual aggression (Koss et al., 1987) was measured in the third investigation. Univariate ANOVAs in all three studies showed that many of the characteristics associated with wife-battering men were also associated with college men who admitted to engaging in low-level courtship violence. However, stepwise discriminant analyses showed that two variables, threats and verbal abuse, were the most predictive of courtship violence in college men. Additional notable associations were found between the use of playful force during sex and self-reported sudden mood swings and/or a quick temper and courtship violence.

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  1. Psychology Department, Lycoming College, Box 39, 17701, Williamsport, Pennsylvania

    Kathryn M. Ryan

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Ryan, K.M. Do courtship-violent men have characteristics associated with a “Battering Personality”?. J Fam Viol 10, 99–120 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02110539

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